In the tops of the mountains

 

So, we went to Utah for our annual summer vacation.  Here are some of the most memorable events from the trip.

1)  Ryan hangs out with his mission buddies.

So Ryan has stayed really close to 5 of his (Baltic country) mission companions.  Over the last few months, they figured out that they could all be in Utah at the same time.  Apparently they golfed, geo-cached, made Fazer pie, played Utimate frisbee and other games late into the night.  But this is the only picture my husband managed to take of the event:

(this is Bertha, a felt chicken that used to turn up in cereal boxes, beds and shower drains on their mission and somehow has migrated all the way to the Bean Museum in Provo, Utah.)

2) That Ryan’s sister Elizabeth never let us pay for anything.

If you want to get a free ride on a vacation, have a birthday and lose your job the day before you go.  Everyone picks up your tab, wherever you go.  Besides the lovely accommodations and meals at Betsy’s, she kept paying for everything we did.  It got a little embarrassing, but we sure enjoyed ourselves at the Payson swimming pool:

and gorging ourselves at Tuccano’s Brazilian grill.

3) The traditional meal with fun fun fun blog friends.

Although, really, at this point, I think after 3-5 real life meetings, we get to qualify as FIRL.  (Friends In Real Life.  For those of you who don’t have an aunt as cool as Marcie to teach you the most important Facebook acronyms ).

4) That Seth kept getting MAJORLY lost. 

Notice he’s not in this picture?  Yeah, that’s cause he was sitting next to me at the Gateway fountains (“oh this is so sad.  I just get so worried that you’ll run off, you’ll need to just sit right here by me instead of playing in the fountains with your siblings”  Love and Logic lingo for Your Grounded From Playing.) 

Incident #1 involved me watching him (truly) like a hawk by the man-made pool in the Daybreak neighborhood and him going to play at the very close playground and then deciding to “walk to Grah-mas to get a dry towel”.  I was ill, sure he was at the bottom of that lake, because I couldn’t find him for a good 15 minutes.  As I started combing the neighborhoods nearby, people told me they’d seen him (BLOCKS away) and had walked him back to the lake, since he was wearing his suit.

Incident #2 happened THE NEXT DAY at SLC’s Gateway Mall.  He was sent ahead with Grandma and decided to go back to find me (waiting for to go food at a restaurant) without telling anyone.  I finally found him with a security guard, after another frantic 15 minute search in the busiest place imaginable.  That’s when he lost fountain priviledges.

He is the King of Sneaking Off and I’m at my wit’s end with him.  Any suggestions?

5) Our fun outing to Liberty Park in which we

a) sternly instructed some kids that they couldn’t hog all the floating balls that were part of the Canyon/Stream water area…only to find out that the balls were theirs and that they were SO NICELY sharing with all the 85 kids at the park.  Nice.

b) overheard this conversation between Seth and cousin Hannah (4):

Me: Let’s go guys, we’re going to the wading pools

Hannah (excitedly, always excitedly): Seth! We are going to the LADY pools!

Seth: Yay! We are going to the BABY pools! Do they quack?

Hannah:  Are the pools cracked?

Remember the game of Telephone?  Don’t play with these two.

6) The Oquirrh Mountain Temple tour.

Since this temple hasn’t been dedicated yet, my children got to go on a tour through our church’s newest temple.  I really tried to prepare them as we drove, sharing my testimony of temples and singing songs and it actually paid off.  Emma and Gabe especially enjoyed the tour and seemed to learn alot.  It is a beautiful building.

7) The Pioneer Day parade.

Actually, it wasn’t that memorable.  (No offense to our AWESOME seat savers!)

8) That my college roommate and HILARIOUS blogger Laurie, drove to Utah, partly because I was there!

We, and our 9 children and husbands, met up at Cafe Rio.  After sufficiently destroying the restaurant (and losing Seth again) we headed to a park in Bountiful where we tried to convince the kids that it was SO fun to play in the 95 degree weather while we sweated under the shade trees.  Read her much more fun account here.

9) Dane and Lorena’s all-too-short visit.

No picture, just some fun memories, an AMAZING recipe and a lame stomach flu that sent them home early!

10) Old friends (Anisa, Cami, Jacinda, Rachel and Bethany) who make time to see us.  Even if they have to buy me lunch (see #2) or head up an Amber Alert search for my missing 3 year old (see #4).

Thanks to Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Friends who made this visit so memorable.  Thanks to you for indulging this Family Journal post, ensuring that my memories won’t fade.